The primary reason why Stu Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that he was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So good in fact, that no player possibly could stand up to him. Even the apparently experts who were supposed to be the greatest at gin were blow away when they competed with Stu. One of these gin professionals was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein suffered such a humiliating blow at the hands of stu that he evidently stopped playing it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Certainly, with a notoriety like that it was not too long before gamblers became shy of playing against stu. He could find no matches and in his bleakness he began doing something no one had done before. He began offering starting handicaps to likely adversaries with the high hopes that they may compete with him if they thought they held an edge. He at will started from a bad position and one story has it that he even competed with a consistent cheater. During the game, he received a few words of wisdom that the absconder was at it once again but Stu Ungar stated that he deduced of the dishonestly and he would still acquire a win, which he did, of course.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar into sin city. He won so often that the casinos began requesting that he not to gamble on their casinos anymore. The reason was that other casino players would not sit at the table if he were playing.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he always said that he was a whole lot more skilled at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in 1980 and became the youngest world camp. Because of his features that made him seem far younger than he was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".
